NCAA TOURNEY TRANSCRIPT: Coach Yo, Kennedy Todd-Williams and Madison Scott visit with media ahead of game vs. Ball State

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WACO, Texas — Ole Miss women’s basketball is in Waco for first-round action in the NCAA Tournament. On Thursday, head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin and players Madison Scott and Kennedy Todd-Williams met with media to discuss the Rebels’ upcoming game against Ball State.

Ole Miss will square off against the Cardinals Friday, March 21 with tipoff set for 5:00 p.m. (CT).

Here’s everything Coach Yo, Madi and Kennedy had to say ahead of the matchup.

Question: I guess I’ll start with you, Madison. Talk about y’all’s road to get here and how much confidence do you come in with, I guess, that kind of thing.

MADISON SCOTT: It’s been a long road, but it’s been filled with a lot of good things that have helped prepare us to get where we are now. We can go back to our first game of the season, you know, playing USC in Paris. Our coaches did a great job setting up a competitive schedule for us that helped prepare us for this moment. So we’re very confident coming in.

We feel like we’ve played a whole lot of great teams, a whole lot of great players, seen a whole lot of different styles of basketball. We feel like wore prepared. Now it’s just about coming out and doing what Ole Miss Women’s Basketball does.

Question: Kennedy, Ball State comes in with a lot of momentum. They’ve won a lot. I guess what are you expecting from them and how do you try to slow them down a little bit?

KENNEDY TODD-WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think that they’re going to be ready to play. They play different variety of offenses and obviously it’s the first game of the tournament and so they’re going to be ready so we’re going to be just as prepared, Coach has given us a really good game plan and we just got to continue to just move forward and just compete at a very high level.

Question: Madison, I’m guessing y’all are right on the bubble of hosting or not. Were you disappointed? And what have you seen from Waco so far?

MADISON SCOTT: Yeah, it was definitely disappointing that moment because we really wanted to play in front of the Oxford community again, really wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before. So it was definitely disappointing in the moment but our defense travels. No matter where we go, we pack our defense with us. We’re going to dictate and disrupt no matter where we go. Although it’s disappointing, we’ve already changed our mindset. We look at it as a blessing. We look at God wanted us to be here for a reason, so we’re here to dance. Let’s go.

Question: Madison, you said you wanted to play in Oxford, but, I mean, what do you think of this facility and this arena? When it’s packed out, it’s pretty loud. What are you expecting when you play here?

MADISON SCOTT: Well, it’s March, so I’m expecting it to be loud, rowdy. This is my first time being in this particular facility. It’s very nice. Great hospitality. We’re happy to be here, so, we’ll play wherever, though, like I said. We’re just excited to be here and we’re ready to get to work.

QUESTIONS FOR COACH YO

Question: Surviving the SEC, how much does that help you get ready for the NCAA Tournament, I guess.

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, with our strength of schedule being a three. We’ve had to play elite-level teams from our opening game in Paris and we played UConn, we played NC State at NC State and then we’ve played 16 games in conference play in the Southeastern Conference, so we’re more than prepared and ready to compete against any type of team, any type of style and in any type of venue.

Question: What has Madison’s leadership and ability meant to this team getting them to this point and to the tournament again?

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, Madi has been with me for five years now, so she’s experienced all four NCAA Tournament experiences from when we were in here in Waco to now coming back. I guess that’s why she said full circle coming back to Waco. She’s battle-tested and so her leadership, what she means to the program… I said before she is Ole Miss Women’s Basketball just from a character standpoint, how we play, how she speaks. It’s just really a blessing to have someone like her on the team.

Question: Yeah, coach, and I forgot y’all were here three years ago I guess it was. Were y’all, again, y’all were right there on the bubble, probably, to host. How do you flip that switch real quick to, hey, we’re excited, we’re in the dance, let’s go, that kind of thing.

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, our program is not built on privilege at all. We’re always grateful every time we have an opportunity to represent the university and, this being team 50 in a NCAA environment. Would we have been excited had we hosted? Of course. But we’ve also been on the road and so this is not foreign to us. We did think that we had the resume, but the switch happened almost instantaneously. They had said we were hosting, okay, we would have been excited. They said we were on the road and we’re not going to miss the point that this was our highest seed since 1994 and the highest seed since I’ve been here, so our word is joy for the year. We’re incredibly grateful and it doesn’t take much for us to just keep the main thing the main thing. We’ve always been like that and I think that starts with me and it brushes off on the team, so it was easier than one may think.

Question: Coach, I remember before me and you had spoken and even in your last interviews last March you said you don’t know how to be a power five coach. How do you use your roots coming from such a small country as ours, the Bahamas, and being on such a big stage like March Madness to keep yourself calm, but still get through this process but still have almost an entire country essentially on your back watching you as the sole female with a Bohemian on your team with Rhema Collins as well heading into the next few days.

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, when I made that comment, I just feel like I don’t fit the narrative of what a P4 coach probably looks like. I’m on TikTok. I hang out with my players. I’m in the community. You can tweet at me. I will tweet back. I just think I’m a different generation, but I’m difficult a power four coach and have had a lot of success in my stint here, so and that is, like you said, Sasha in large part because of my roots, born and raised from the Bahamas. We are a humble but confident group of people but we also have a lot of joy and appreciativeness and gratitude and I think that keeps me grounded. I’m not going to come up here and complain about everything. I’m just always going to be grateful and keep the main thing the main thing. I remember when we went to the Sweet 16, the hotel we were in in Palo Alto… it looked — it was definitely not what we were used to and I remember being grateful then and I’m going to be grateful now for whatever we have that’s been put in our way. That is because of my roots, me being born and raised in the Bahamas.

Question: Coach, can you talk about Ball State and what you see from them, preparing for them?

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, I mean, like you guys said, that’s a team that is on a high right now. I know what that feels like to win a conference championship. Did it at Jacksonville and your team is just incredibly excited and so is the community. I think this is their first one in his tenure and then the first one since 2019 I think, or something like that. I try to read up on the opponent as much as I can. I think that any team that is in the NCAA Tournament should be respected so we definitely respect them. We also expect them to come out and give their best punch.

I think when you get into this type of mode from my experience, you probably try to focus more on your team and what you’re about than the opponent, but I want to go on record that I’m not going to give them any type of — what’s that newspaper stuff. We respect them a lot and we’re excited about competing against them.

Next Up:

Ole Miss and Ball State tip off at 5:00 p.m. CT Friday, March 21. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.